Light Years From Home
by hannahsoapy
Summary: Spiderman's alone in space. Not exactly how he planned on his field trip ending, but Peter's trying to take things one step at a time today.
1. Graceful Motion

A/N: I was maybe a little upset about Infinity War. And Tom's just so goshdarn adorable.

* * *

The suit Mr. Stark had thrown onto him had saved his life. That was all Peter knew. He hadn't been able to get inside the donut-shaped spaceship, and at some point, was flung off of it, into the dark coldness of space.

Well, it was supposed to be cold. He could still breathe, though, and he only felt a little chilly, so he knew the suit had something to do with that. He was lucky there hadn't been anything in the way when he lost hold of the ship-it had taken him a long time to slow down in the absence of gravity. It was a lot of spinning, even for him.

"Karen?" he tried.

"Yes, Peter?" came the usual response from his suit's AI.

"Oh, thank goodness you're here," he sighed. "Um, you wouldn't happen to know where we are?"

There was a lengthy pause. Peter became increasing more worried the longer the silence stretched.

"I am unable to determine your location, Peter," said Karen, sounding regretful. "Unfortunately, we are no longer on Earth- "

"Yeah, got that bit," Peter cut her off. "You know, at least you're here. How long can you be here, actually?"

"I estimate two more hours of power, at the current consumption rate."

"Great, thanks, Karen," Peter said, his brain buzzing.

Two hours. Huh. He looked around. Nothing. He was in space, after all. He could see distant stars, but nothing looked very close. He'd never thought his first trip into space would be like this. Peter always figured he'd go to space someday (he'd always thought being an astronaut sounded fun), and after getting bitten by a radioactive spider, he kinda figured he wouldn't have to be an astronaut anymore to leave the planet, but he hadn't thought it would be like this, literally alone, in just his Spider-suit. He'd thought something more along the lines of Mr. Stark building a rocket ship and bringing him along for the ride. That would have been nice.

He waved his arms experimentally. The motion caused him to start floating in a slightly different direction, so he did it again. Peter distracted himself doing slow flips in space for a while. It was sorta the only thing he could do. He didn't have his backpack, or anything else, and he didn't want to talk to Karen too much, and risk running down the suit's energy.

Peter tried not to think about how he was probably going to die. He'd be dead before Aunt May even realized he wasn't home from school yet. Definitely before Mr. Stark got back from wherever that giant donut spaceship had been going. His suit was going to fail in… less than an hour now, and then the cold vacuum would freeze him.

At least he wasn't in Earth's solar system, because then he'd freeze and the sun would boil him at the same time, which sounded like a lot worse way to die.

The little air he had in his suit was already stale and thin. Peter was taking very long, slow breaths to try and help, but he was pretty sure it wasn't helping at all. His lungs were starting to burn, and he was pretty sure that was bad. It couldn't be good.

"K-Karen?"

"Yes, Peter?"

"If the s-suit d-dies, would, I mean," Peter was having trouble thinking clearly, on top of starting to feel the cold in his fingers and toes. A shiver spasmed his body. "C-can you s-save a m-message? I m-mean, the s-suit should be able t-to ch-charge up again, if s-someone f-finds me."

Karen took longer than usual to respond, and when she did it was in a much softer tone.

"Yes, Peter, I can do that for you."

"Th-thanks, Karen," he said, taking a deep breath to help clear his brain. "Okay, t-tell Aunt May…"

Peter was only halfway through Ned's message when he realized he wasn't talking out loud anymore. His jaw was too cold to move anymore, and his eyelids had already slid shut, and the darkness was so gentle…

"Peter? Peter!" Karen's frantic tone momentarily roused him, because it was so unlike her, but he couldn't find the strength, or the will, to respond.

"Peter, there appears to be a ship approaching. Attempting contact."

 _That's nice, Karen_ , Peter thought as he drifted into inky blackness.

* * *

Peter blinked. And then blinked a couple more times. His eyes felt _so_ dry. He wiggled his fingers, and toes. He felt tired, but all his fingers and toes seemed intact, so that was a win. No frostbite. Whoever had stuck him in this cage, however, hadn't taken his suit off of him, so he probably had Karen.

"Karen?" Peter asked as he looked around. He was a little worried now, because it totally looked like he was in a cage.

The bars that made up the walls kinda gave it away.

"Yes, Peter?"

"Do you know where we are?"

"You are on some form of spacecraft, Peter. I was not able to get enough of an audio sample of their speech to translate their intentions."

"So, it's not looking good for me?" He tugged on one of the bars. It didn't budge. Well, it was a long shot, anyway.

"I would say not."

"Thanks for the optimism, Karen," Peter muttered. "How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours, Peter."

"Well, I guess I won't make it back before Aunt May notices, huh?" He dejectedly slumped against the back wall of the cage.

"Current time in New York City is 10 p.m."

Peter sighed. There didn't seem to be anyone around, and he couldn't see a door. Mostly because there was a bunch of shelving around, and large containers and things. Peter surmised that he was in some kind of cargo hold. There was a steady thrumming that was probably engines, or whatever they were using to power the ship.

His Spidey senses tingled as he heard footsteps from outside. It sounded like there was a hallway on the other side of the wall, and the footsteps were dragging something.

"I think we might have company," he said, mostly to himself. Karen didn't answer. A door opened somewhere off to the left of him, and Peter readied himself for whoever was coming.

Around a corner, came two humanoid-looking aliens, one of which was blue, and the other who… were those feathers instead of hair? Weird. Their outfits looked a bit like what Peter would have imagined space cowboy-pirates to be wearing: leather jackets, shirts and pants of questionable cleanliness, and what appeared to be space weapons strapped all over. They were each grasping the arm of some dude that they were dragging along between them. Whoever it was, he (or she, he supposed) was unconscious, and their arms were cuffed together with some weird, glowy space-cuffs. Oh, shoot. Maybe they were space cowboy-pirates.

"Hey! I'm, uh, I'm from Earth? You guys know where that is?" They both looked at him, and the feathery one gestured angrily with one hand. Peter wasn't sure what that meant, but he could guess it meant _shut up_.

"You guys speak English? Or Spanish? Um, espanol? I took two years of that- "

One of the space cowboy-pirates (he was definitely calling them that now) whacked the outside of the cage with his free hand, and Peter decided it really was time to shut up now. The blue one said something in a weird alien language that made it sound like he was retching, and the feathery one laughed.

They opened the cage by touching a panel briefly, and threw the poor dude they'd been dragging inside.

"Hey, wait," said Peter, taking a step forward, "who's this dude? You can't just- "

Apparently, they could, though, because the blue one drew his space gun without hesitating, and shot him, throwing Peter back against the bars.

He lost consciousness for the second time that day.

* * *

One guess who Peter's cellmate is?

I am shameless, and I will beg for reviews. Pretty please?


	2. Soft Explosion

A/N: Wow, I've been totally blown away by the response to this! Thank you, guys! If you guessed Loki was the mystery prisoner, welp, you were right! I just have a thing for British guys named Tom, I guess, and I like them to be not dead.

* * *

Loki collapsed on the floor of the Commodore.

Maintaining a corporeal double of himself was exhausting, but on top of that, the Power Stone was somehow causing more of the effects of the strangulation to actually affect him. He struggled to keep the illusion up as Thanos finished strangling the double and threw the body to the ground.

Thor had gathered all those that could fight, but Loki had known they wouldn't be able to fend off Thanos themselves. Brunnhilde had taken the rest to the escape pods. Loki had doubled himself, and sent the double to fight while he released the pods along with the ship's trash and stores, hopefully concealing them from Thanos. And then he'd made a plan. And a backup plan.

He'd known what Thanos' end goal was, but he could not watch his brother's head get squeezed off.

Sentiment. He had it, buried deep. Very, very deep, but it was there. Not that he got any thanks for saving his brother's life.

Unfortunately, handing over the Tesseract had not curbed Thanos' lust for blood. Loki had been forced to intervene, with hidden knife and false promises. He'd known Thanos would be more likely to let Thor live if he died. Or if he thought he was dead.

He'd thought Thor would be less torn up about it. It wasn't the first time he'd "died", after all.

His brother sobbed, draped over his fake dead body, the weight strangely comforting. How long had it been since they'd exchanged a genuine hug?

How depressing that he was receiving it on his deathbed. Sort of.

Thor would be alright. He always was. Loki's last two 'deaths' had spurred him on, perhaps this one would do the same.

Loki didn't realized he'd been allowing too much of his double's sensory input in until purple light filled his senses, and he fell unconscious.

* * *

"Augh, Karen?" Peter groaned, picking himself up off the floor.

"Yes, Peter? How is your head?"

"Uh, it's alright, I guess," he said, trying to ignore the headache he had. He wasn't feeling dizzy, and the light wasn't bothering him, so he probably didn't have a concussion. The blue space cowboy-pirate had hit him in the stomach with whatever his space-weapon fired, though, and that hurt a lot more than his head at the moment.

The dude they'd thrown in was lying face-down in the middle of the cage, long black hair falling all around his head carelessly, and Peter cautiously moved toward him, crouching by his head. He was wearing a weird layered outfit of black and green leather, with some gold bits in there, too. Peter poked him. Nothing. Whatever they'd hit this guy with was worse than what he'd gotten.

Peter decided to flip him over. It was only polite, after all. He wouldn't like to wake up with his face mashed against the floor.

He turned out to be a LOT heavier than Peter thought he would be, but he finally managed to get him on his back.

"There, that's better, wait…" Peter looked at his face closely. "Karen, why does this guy look familiar?"

"That is Loki of Asgard, Thor's brother," Karen supplied helpfully.

"That's, uh, the guy that blew up Manhattan?" Peter asked nervously, hoping for a no.

"Yes," said Karen, at the same time as a smooth voice said, "I prefer 'destroyed large parts of'."

Peter gasped as he met the eyes of the very awake Loki.

"Sorry," he said, reflexively. Loki ignored him, and sat up, looking down at the cuffs that bound his arms. He cursed, at least, that's what it sounded like, in some alien language that Peter would have asked to teach him how to say if he wasn't scared of the dude at the moment.

Loki turned to him. "You are of Midgard?"

"Midgard?" Peter asked, confused.

"Midgard is the traditional Asgardian word for the planet Earth," Karen supplied helpfully.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, Midgard," Peter said quickly. Loki looked intently at him for a moment.

"Has Thanos visited there yet?"

"Um, I dunno. What's he look like? There was a really huge guy and a weird looking skinny guy in a giant donut spaceship- "

"Stop," said Loki, and Peter fell silent. "That was Obsidian and Maw, Thanos' servants. Did they get the Time Stone?"

"No?" Peter honestly wasn't sure. He'd just jumped in and started fighting the bad guys. "The skinny guy took some dude with him to his ship, but Mr. Stark, uh, Ironman, I mean, he was following them."

"Yes, I know who Anthony Stark is," Loki murmured. "There is still time, then."

"Oh, okay, that's great," Peter said, not really sure anything actually was great at the moment.

"What is your name?" Loki demanded.

"Peter, um, I'm the Spiderman." He tried to look as confident as possible with a giant, painful bruise forming on his abdomen as he could. Loki seemed amused, but addressed him seriously.

"Very well, little spider. What do you say we get out of here?"

"We?"

"Do you wish to stay here?" Loki responded, with a derisive look around the room.

"No, I don't, of course not. I just thought, aren't you the bad guy?" His voice trailed off.

Loki barked a laugh that only sounded slightly insane. "It's entirely relative," he said casually. "Now, what exactly can you do, little Spider? These restraints stifle me."

Peter wasn't exactly comforted by the answer, but Loki seemed like his only way out at this point. He didn't see any other offers on the table, at least. And the space cowboy-pirates didn't speak english.

"I'm not _little_ ," he protested. That was the second time he'd called him that.

Loki looked at him derisively, "I have met spiders far bigger than you."

"Really? That's… fun?" Peter said, only able to picture the giant acromantula from Harry Potter, and they weren't his idea of fun.

"They can be bargained with," Loki said cryptically, although Peter heard him mutter something about Thor under his breath.

"I can shoot webs," Peter supplied, "and, uh, I stick to walls, basically, anything a spider does?"

Loki responded with a quiet hmm, contemplating the cuffs on his arms. Peter kept talking, nervously.

"The suit's new, though, hey, Karen, do I still have Droney?"

Loki's head whipped up to look at him so fast, Peter was concerned for his neck.

"Karen? There is someone else with you?" He addressed Peter incredulously.

"No, no. It's my suit, it has an AI, it's, uh, like a computer? Karen, can you project your voice?"

"Yes, Peter," Karen said, at a volume that Loki could hear. "You do still have a reconnaissance drone. You also have these."

Four giant, metallic spider-legs sprang out of Peter's back. He swayed backwards for a moment before regaining his balance.

"Woah, so awesome!" Peter exclaimed, running his hand over one of the legs. Loki did not appear to be impressed. It was really reminding Peter of MJ. That was weird. If the two of them met, though, that would be hilarious. MJ would probably just shrug and go back to the book of the day.

Peter shook his head. MJ was on Earth, and he was… definitely not, but working on it.

"You think maybe Taser-webs would work on those magic glowy cuffs?"

"What are 'Taser-webs'," Loki asked suspiciously.

"They're like, electric? They zap things."

Loki seemed to consider it for a moment, then held out his arms with a nod. Peter threw several webs at the middle section of the cuffs, careful to avoid contact with any skin.

"Activate Taser-webs, Karen," Peter said, and the AI complied immediately, the webs around the cuffs lighting up briefly as currents ran through them. Loki jerked as well, the electricity from the Taser-webs transmitting through the metal. The cuffs didn't release, but the weird glowy-ness disappeared.

"Sorry, I guess that didn't help all that much-" Peter started, but Loki was twisting his hands, green glowy tendrils emanating from them, and the cuffs promptly fell off.

"That's so cool! Are you like a wizard or something?"

"Or something," Loki agreed, with a genuine smile. "It's called seidr." Peter watched in fascination as Loki created a double of himself outside the bars, and it walked over to the panel that would open the door to their cage. He had about a million questions about magic, but they should probably wait until they weren't stuck on a space cowboy-pirate ship.

"Wait, do we have a plan? We're in the middle of space! You do have a spaceship somewhere, right?" Peter asked as he tried to figure out how to retract his Spider-Legs. He stumbled a little as the legs snapped into place onto his back.

"I always have a plan," smirked Loki.

The cage door clicked open.


	3. A Star With Fiery Oceans

A/N: To the guest that asked when I was going to update-how about… riiiiiiiiight now! Haha. But to answer the question I think you were asking, I'm going to try to update every 1-2 weeks. I'm not sure how long this will end up being, because Loki just likes to do whatever he wants, and Peter will talk all day if I let him, so it's like managing two children. I shamefully confess that Peter's still calling them space-guns because I'm too lazy to make up a name for them. The Pangorians, however, I have borrowed from comic-book canon. Also, if anyone was curious, the chapter titles are all from 2000 Light Years From Home, by the Rolling Stones.

* * *

"So, are you, uh, gonna let me know what the plan is?"

Loki was peering out the window of the cargo hold into the hallway on the other side. His double had vanished after letting them out of their cage. Peter had been grateful (and more than a little surprised) that Loki's escape plans included himself. He'd definitely been very worried about his future for a bit, there.

Apparently, Loki's plans didn't include telling him the plan, though. Peter had scrambled to follow him out of the cage, perplexed at how confidently he strode through the unfamiliar stacks of storage containers.

"This is a standard Pangorian ship," said Loki, surprising Peter.

"What's that?"

"Were they blue?" Loki pressed. "The ones that put us in there?"

"One of them was, yeah," said Peter, slowly. "Why?"

"They're pirates."

"For real?" Peter couldn't believe he'd been right. They _were_ space cowboy-pirates! Minus the cowboy bit.

"Yes, 'for real'," Loki said. "Some of them must have escaped the Celestials."

Peter didn't know what 'Celestials' were, but the space-pirates were bad, so he was guessing the Celestials were the good guys.

"The hangar should be right above us," Loki was saying. "That will be where my ship is."

"Your ship?"

"Circular, yellow and red, you can't miss it."

Peter thought maybe he could have mentioned that important little tidbit about having a spaceship earlier.

"Now," Loki said abruptly, and he silently opened the door, and slid out into the hall. Peter followed, on edge, as the trickster boldly walked ahead.

On instinct, Peter whipped around and threw a web, hitting a space pirate-Pangorian, he corrected-that was just rounding the corner into the hall behind them. He (or she?) dropped in a spasm of electric webs.

"Anything a spider can do?" Loki said, humming thoughtfully.

"It's, um, I call it my Spidey sense," Peter tried to explain, as they continued. Loki briefly turned, to give him a glance that clearly indicated that Peter had just spewed a bunch of nonsense.

"It's sort of… precognition?"

"How curious."

Loki stopped in front of some metal panels that looked suspiciously like elevator doors, and pressed a little round button on them. The hallway was dead silent as they stood, waiting. Peter was opening his mouth to ask what they were waiting for, when the doors dinged, and opened.

It was an elevator, and Peter was disappointed at how… non-spacey it was. He didn't have any idea of what he'd expected a space elevator to look like, but it looked almost exactly like an Earth elevator.

The doors opened to a hangar, crammed full of small spaceships. The wing of one came right up to the elevator door, and they ducked under as they stepped out.

"Someone's got a collection."

Loki scoffed. "All stolen or scavenged."

"I'll get a better look from up here," Peter said, running and shooting a web line up to the ceiling.

"No, don't-" Peter didn't hear the rest of Loki's protest, the rush of air blowing it away. He scanned the hangar, looking for the ship Loki had described as he swung, and spotted it almost right away, the ostentatious colors popping out among the bland ensemble. He spun out another web, turning his momentum back toward Loki.

"I found it! Over there!" He cried, pointing out the direction to a resigned god of mischief. Loki immediately took off, but Peter sensed something, just in time to see a Pangorian yell and shoot at him. He flung another web just in time; these weren't Stormtroopers, apparently. A few blue dudes, as well as the feathery guy from the cargo hold, came running in behind him.

Peter didn't think their space-guns were set to stun, this time.

He dropped off his line, rolling onto the hard metal floor, shots bouncing off the tops of the spaceships above him. He couldn't see Loki, but he sprinted in the direction of the colorful ship, hoping he'd find it before they found him.

He heard pounding steps off to his right, just as he caught a glimpse of Loki through the distorted glass of a weird bubble-shaped ship.

"Loki, we have company!" Peter cried, leaping over the bubble-ship to find that Loki definitely already knew that.

The god was fighting, knives dancing, against a gigantic Pangorian that looked like he'd prove a challenge to Hulk anyday. The two other Pangorians and the feathery guy burst out from between the ships.

"Hey, let's get rid of those," Peter tossed his webs, and managed to decommission the two Pangorian's space-guns before the one in front had reached him.

"Watch out!" Peter twisted the strands he was still holding, and the second guy's space-gun knocked the first one out before he could reach him.

"Guess he didn't have eyes in the back of his head."

He could hear the sounds of fighting behind him, so he wasn't too worried about Loki. The second Pangorian was brandishing a knife now, and the feathery guy still had a space-gun pointed at him. Peter dodged the blast from the space-gun, hitting the barrel with a web, but it threw him in the path of the swinging knife, and it slashed into him, slicing through his suit easily, just below his ribs.

He didn't really feel it at first, the adrenaline pumping as he blocked a punch from the feathery guy, threw the knife guy flying up into the air on a web, and flipped to kick the feathery guy headfirst into the wing of a metal spaceship.

Space-pirates: zero; Spiderman: four.

"No hard feelings, guys," he panted, "I just wanna go home."

A crash sounded, and Peter saw the Pangorian hulk go crashing down. Loki, breathing hard, glanced at Peter's felled opponents and nodded sharply in approval.

The temporary high from the fight was receding, and Peter was really starting to feel his stab wound. He squeezed his eyes shut as a wave of dizziness swept over him. Awkwardly fumbling, he hissed as he pressed his hand onto his bloodied suit. It felt distinctly damp.

Loki was already up the ramp to the ship; Peter took a staggering step, and paused, realizing his injury might be a tiny bit more serious than he'd assumed. His senses were tingling, however, and he knew that could only mean more Pangorians approaching, so he took a deep breath, and quickly limped onto the ship, gritting his teeth.

"I recommend taking a seat," Loki said from a pilot's chair, fully absorbed in all the fancy buttons and control thingies.

"Shields up," a vaguely feminine disembodied voice announced, as laser guns were fired at them from outside.

Peter finally processed what Loki had said - not that he could stand up by himself anymore, anyways. He stumbled as Loki swung the ship jerkily out of the hangar, avoiding shots from the laser cannon, and it was only luck that he fell back onto a bench, and not the floor.

Jump to lightspeed, Peter thought deliriously, his vision tunneling out to black.

* * *

I'm so sorry, I can't seem to stop injuring Peter…


	4. It's So Very Lonely

A/N: I physically write these out before I type them, so sometimes _finding_ the chapter is a real problem. This chapter was on three separate scraps of paper and the back of a receipt, all in separate places, and only a little bit of it in the notebook I have for exactly this purpose... Ah, well, it keeps life interesting. On a happy note: No Peters were harmed in the writing of this chapter!

* * *

Loki put the Commodore on autopilot and finally relaxed. They were far enough away now that the Pangorians, with their much larger ship, wouldn't be able to catch up, and he'd set a convoluted course, so even if they attempted to follow, they'd end up going the wrong way.

The pirates had been an unexpected delay, but Loki couldn't say nothing had come of it. He had been short one insignificant detail of his plan-namely, ensuring that the Avengers would not slaughter him the second they saw him-and 'Spiderman' ought to be of use for that purpose.

His brow furrowed, as he realized there had not been a sound from the little Spider this whole time. He'd hardly stopped talking since or asking questions since the moment Loki regained consciousness on the Pangorian spacecraft. He succumbed to his nagging conscience, and spun around to check on him.

His traveling companion was slumped on the bench against the wall, his arm awkwardly jutting straight out from beneath him.

Exhaustion, Loki thought dismissively, and he turned back to the control panel.

And then stared blankly ahead.

None of the décor had ever been red. One of his favorite things about the Commodore was that it was not red. Green was of course preferable, but he'd been content to settle for not red.

The seat cushion beneath the little Spider was red now.

"By the Nornir*," Loki swore aloud. He pushed out of the pilot's chair and knelt by the bench. As gently as he could, he moved the Spider onto his back, and spotted the tear, and jagged, gaping wound in his side immediately. It was bleeding, only a slow trickle, but judging by the seat cushion, too much blood had been lost already.

Loki had no idea if there were any other injuries, but he'd have to find a way to get the suit off, somehow. He could heal with his seidr, but he wasn't trained as a healer, and it was easier if he could see the wound. He frowned.

"Karen?" Loki tried, tentatively. "I must assess any injuries. Can you release the suit?"

He knew that Stark's suit could follow commands, and remove itself. This suit didn't look anything like Stark's, but he assumed that the billionaire had made it, since it had an AI. Peter clearly hadn't made it himself, because he'd had to ask what it could do.

Karen did not verbally respond, but the dark suit retracted, revealing another, red version of the suit underneath. Loki scowled at it-why was he wearing two suits?-but then it loosened, enough that he would have no trouble taking it off.

"Thanks," Loki said, and he pulled the mask off first and caught his breath in surprise.

Not just a little Spider; this was a _child._ Spider- _man_ , more like Spider-boy, he huffed. Yggdrasil's branches, how did Stark justify bringing one so young into the fray? He looked to be barely past his first decade.

"Are even the children to fight and die?" He murmured to himself in disbelief.

Then he remembered that time was of the essence, and he efficiently peeled the rest of the suit off the boy.

Peter, he recalled, belatedly. The boy had said his name was Peter.

Other than a huge bruise stretching over his entire abdomen that was all colors of the rainbow, and some scrapes on his back, there was nothing else, as far as he could tell. Loki lifted his hands, summoning his seidr, and let it dance over the gash in Peter's side first. It slowly began to close, the bleeding halting, and the flesh knitting itself back together reluctantly.

It wasn't quite fully healed when he paused, sweating and breathing hard from the exertion, but it was nearly there. He figured he probably had enough energy to help the bruise along a bit, and he brought his seidr up again. The bruise was greenish-yellow by the time he was forced to stop, exhaustedly lowering his hands.

It was much easier to heal oneself, and Loki didn't practice healing others much, exactly for this reason. It left him weak. For now, however, they were safe from the pirates, and Loki did need Spider-boy alive. Not because he was fond of the child.

The boy was lucky, though. Losing that much blood should have been fatal, he knew, for a normal Midgardian. Peter was not normal, and Loki hoped that his anomalous physiology would allow him to recover quickly. There was a fight ahead, and he suspected that Spiderman would not take no for an answer.

Loki let out a long breath, and looking regretfully at Peter's open face, wished that one so young and innocent did not have to be there at all.

He slid his arms behind Peter's shoulders and legs, lifting the slim form carefully. Moving slowly, so as not to jostle him, he tapped a panel on the back wall, causing it to slide open. The room that was revealed was in the shape of a half-circle, and the space was entirely taken up with a bed.

Loki had planned on having the ridiculously large bed ripped out, so that the space could be used for anything else. He hadn't had a chance, however, before Thanos had attacked, so the best he'd been able to do was subject every surface to rigorous cleansing spells. He was aware that this had been the Grandmaster's pleasure ship, after all, although he hadn't had the… honor… of attending one of the exclusive parties.

Loki rolled his eyes, again, at the Grandmaster's extravagance, and laid Peter down on the bed. At least he could not doubt that it was comfortable-the Grandmaster never spared expense.

He looked wearily at the remaining empty expanse of bed that appeared so inviting.

If he slept, a few hours, the ship would probably be all right. A glance at the console confirmed it, and Loki gave in, falling back onto the covers, and was asleep as soon as his eyes closed.

* * *

*I was going to put 'by the Norns', but Nornir is the Old Norse plural for Norn, according to the Google, and I thought it would be a little more accurate for Loki to say it that way, instead.


	5. Red Deserts Turn to Dark

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews, people! You're the best!

* * *

Peter wanted a do-over on his space adventure, he decided, as he swam muddily out of his sleep. He had a vague recollection of waking up earlier, and then someone telling him to rest, and that had sounded like a pretty good idea, so he'd done it.

Blinking, he examined the ceiling. They must have made it out of the pirate spaceship without being shot down, because it didn't look like he was in a cage, and he was definitely lying on a bed.

Ned was going to love this story, if he ever made it back home.

Stiffly, he felt down his side to poke at where he'd been stabbed. Peter paused when his fingers felt soft, tender new skin where there should have been blood and bandages. It felt mostly healed, and… was he only in his boxers?

He struggled to sit up partially, the squishy bed reluctant to let him go.

"What…" he breathed, gingerly touching his side again. The bruise from the space-gun, too, looked as if it had been healing for weeks.

Peter finally looked around for Loki. The god of mischief was sitting casually in one of the pilot's chairs, reading a book, and eating an apple.

"Loki," Peter called, nervously eyeing his nearly-healed wounds, "how long have I been out?"

"A few hours," came the nonchalant response.

"A few-no way! I can't heal _this_ fast."

Loki merely raised his hand, and the green magic-no, seidr, Peter corrected himself-glowed around it.

"Oh. Thanks," he said, but Loki didn't appear to have heard him, too engrossed in his book.

Peter sat up fully and swung his legs down to the floor. He'd been a little preoccupied when he'd first bled his way onto the ship, and hadn't really seen much of it.

It was an odd choice to have the bedroom be all bed, but it was a ridiculously comfy bed, so he wasn't about to complain. Everything was also white and orange, except for one of the benches, that looked pink.

Peter squinted at it, confused. Nope, it was definitely pink. He sorta remembered collapsing on a bench, and he was pretty sure that he'd stained that bench with his blood. A lot of his blood.

He decided that looking at it was a bad idea.

"So, where are we going?" Peter asked. He hadn't missed the fact that the ship was moving quickly. The view out of the cockpit made that obvious.

"I thought perhaps you might know," Loki said, only briefly looking up from his book. "Have you any idea where Maw's ship was headed?"

"Not a clue, dude. I'd really like it if someone would explain anything to me," Peter retorted irritably. He hated being the only one left out of the loop. Like when he went with Mr. Stark to Germany. Peter hadn't known what they were fighting over at the time, and he wished he had.

Loki snapped his book shut, and stared at Peter inscrutably. It started to make Peter twitchy after about ten seconds, not because of his Spidey senses or anything, just because this suddenly felt like some sort of test - a test he'd already failed because he didn't know what was on it, hadn't prepared for it or studied or anything. He swallowed uncomfortably.

Loki straightened in his seat, and the spell was broken.

"What do you know of Thanos?"

"Um… he's… a bad guy?"

"Infinity Stones?"

"Just-how about let's start with I really don't know anything at all," Peter said, feeling sorta like Harry Potter on the first day of Potions with Snape.

Not a bad analogy, actually.

"Very well," Loki nodded, after a moment. "There are six Infinity Stones: soul, mind, time, power, space, and reality. They were weapons of the Celestials, and individually, are immensely powerful in their own right; wielding them all together would make one... all-powerful."

"So, this Thanos guy-he's trying to collect them all?" Peter guessed.

"Yes."

"The guy that got taken on the ship, he- he had one, a stone?"

"The Time Stone," Loki confirmed. "That was Sorcerer Supreme Strange-"

"Sorcerer Supreme Strange?" Peter interrupted. There was some dude called _Sorcerer Supreme Strange_? So. Awesome.

Loki sent him an admonishing look.

"He prefers Doctor, actually, but yes. He can handle Maw, but not Thanos. Which is why it would be helpful to know where that ship is going. I need Strange."

Peter was still enjoying the sound of 'Sorcerer Supreme Strange' in his head, but Loki's words, although delivered in a level tone, soon brought him back.

"What does he want? I mean, Thanos. When- if he gets all the stones?"

"Ostensibly, he wishes to bring balance," Loki smirked. "But I have also heard he desires to court the Lady Death. A lovely gesture, killing half the universe."

Peter suddenly felt like everything was pressing in on him.

He hadn't known what he was getting into when he leapt off the school bus that morning. He'd expected a fight, a victory, maybe a 'Good job, kid' from Mr. Stark, and then he'd sneak back to school and tell Ned all about it in gym class while MJ rolled her eyes at them from the other side of the bleachers.

Peter hadn't been at all prepared for a space adventure, but he'd thought that it had sorta turned out okay so far. Loki had turned out to be pretty cool, even if he was really cagey about his plans, but seeing as how Loki was the only reason that Peter was not still in a cage or extremely dead, Peter had decided to put him on the 'good guy' list.

Only now he was hurtling across the universe with no clue where he was going on this orange and white and pink-from-his-blood spaceship, and Loki was sitting there in his space chair and calmly telling him that there was a bad guy who wanted to finish his rock collection and use it to kill half the universe, and it was happening right now, and Peter felt woefully unprepared.

"I wish I was home," he said quietly, trying not to cry as he thought about Aunt May. Sure, he was going to be in a lot of trouble when he got back, but he missed her, and he knew she'd be worried out of her mind about him. He wondered how many voicemails he had from her.

Loki seemed to be lost in his thoughts; he looked a little sad, staring into nowhere.

Peter let out a shaky breath, stared down at his bare hands, and blinked the tears away.

"Home."

It was so quiet, Peter wouldn't have heard it without his improved hearing. Loki was grinning wildly at him.

"What?" Peter asked, completely clueless as to what Loki meant. The god of mischief just threw back his head and laughed.

"It is a good thing you're here, little Spider," he said, swiveling the chair back around to face the controls.

"I know where we need to be now."

* * *

I can't help it, I love cryptic!Loki

Reviews feed the plot bunnies :)


	6. Energy In Every Part

A/N: Thanks for all your kind reviews; they really warm my heart! :) And to ThatOneGuest: I'm so glad you like it! I was tempted to write a scene earlier where Peter imagines what MJ would do if she met Loki, but then I decided it would definitely be more fun to have them actually meet. So, yeah, you guessed what the epilogue will be!

I spent a solid hour bugging my sister about this chapter before she finally told me to 'just post it already, I want to go clean my room'. So, here it is! I am playing with the Infinity War timeline a smidge (if you hadn't noticed already, it's gonna be super obvious soon), but I couldn't stretch it too much, and Peter really, really, wanted to know that Mr. Stark was okay. I can't say no to those brown eyes, man.

* * *

"Better put on your suit," Loki said, as he guided the Commodore into the dusty atmosphere of the mad Titan's home planet.

Peter, who had been crouched on the co-pilot's seat, eager eyes open wide, shoved the last of the nutrient bar Loki had given him into his mouth, and scrambled off to pull on his Spider-suit. He was back in the seat only a moment later, legs hastily pulled up, and tugging up the arms. Loki felt a smile trying to creep up on his lips.

"Do you think Mr. Stark will be there, too?"

"It's possible," was all Loki said, descending to sweep over the ruins of the capital city, searching for lifeforms below.

He knew that Strange was more than capable of taking down Maw, so Stark was also probably still alive, but Loki didn't deal in false hopes. Better to always plan for the worst than to be disappointed.

He picked up some blips on the scanner, and smoothly swung the ship around towards them, coming in low to land.

"He's there! He's alive!" Peter cried, standing and leaning across the control panel to get a closer look.

Indeed, it was Stark. Loki also spotted Strange, sitting apart from the others, with a weary expression. He didn't know who the other three were, but if Strange and Stark were tolerating them, they were most likely allies. A Midgardian, by appearances, and a larger humanoid with tribal tattoos, and kneeling by Stark was a... Mantidae? Now that was intriguing. Those empaths were very rarely seen off of their home world.

Loki landed the Commodore gently. The little Spider was running around the walls in excitement, waiting for him to open the door.

"It'll be okay for me to breathe out there, right? Like, the air's okay, right?" Peter asked from the ceiling. "Oh, but Mr. Stark and those other people are out there and they're fine, so that's, right, nevermind."

Loki had opened one of the side doors while the little Spider talked, and waited for him to pause. He could hear Stark, outside, asking Strange if he'd seen friendly people on this ship in all the possible futures. Loki supposed that depended on Stark's definition of friendly.

"After you, little Spider," he said to Peter, with a sweep of his arm. The boy dove out of the door before he'd finished speaking. Loki shook his head before he followed, absently wondering when he'd started to use 'little Spider' as an endearment rather than a pejorative.

"Kid! Peter, how did you get here?" Stark was exclaiming. Until he saw Loki. Then he pushed Peter back and aimed a repulsor at him. "You! What the hell were you doing with my kid?"

"No!" Peter started to protest. "Mr. Stark, he was helping! He's, uh, he's really nice now?"

The Mantidae had backed away, and Loki could see that she had been applying something to Stark's injuries. Whatever had hit the Ironman had struck with enough force to break through the layers of metal. It looked unpleasant, and the man was clearly in a large amount of pain.

He had more important things to attend to than explaining himself to Stark, however, and ignored his protests.

"Dr. Strange," he said, turning to acknowledge the man he had wanted to find.

"Loki," Dr. Strange said, heavily. "It's so good to see you."

"What! What? Strange, you know him?"

"He's here to help, Tony." The tension between Strange and Stark was palpable. Loki cleared his throat.

"Thanos was here, was he not?"

"Yeah, and then Supreme Mugwump over here decided to just hand over the Time Stone," Stark accused, but his anger seemed a little halfhearted.

"It was the only way," Strange said, meeting Loki's gaze evenly.

Loki had met the sorcerer before, purposely sought him out on Midgard, because he knew the man protected the Time Stone. Loki did not bestow his trust easily, but Strange was one of those to whom he had, and he knew the man would only have done exactly what needed to be done.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Peter glancing between them, and he smiled inwardly. The little Spider knew there was more than they were saying aloud. Stark did not seem to give him enough credit, even though he was apparently some kind of mentor to the little Spider.

"He has Power and Reality, too," the man that looked to be of Midgard said roughly, interrupting Loki's thoughts, "and… the Soul Stone."

That was disappointing, but to be expected. That Stone had always been beyond him. Loki knew the price that came with acquiring the Soul Stone. He knew who it would have demanded of him, and it had not been a price he was willing to pay.

Loki turned to the three people whom he did not know.

"I am Loki, of Asgard," he introduced himself.

"Oh, uh, Starlord," said the Midgardian, holstering his blaster. "And this is Drax, and Mantis, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy. Or, half of them, anyway."

Loki highly suspected the man had made that name up for himself, but he acknowledged them with a nod.

"That's so cool," Peter said, looking thrilled. "I'm Spiderman. What do you guys do?"

"Kick names, take ass," said Mantis.

"Yeah, that's right," muttered Drax.

Stark looked like the mangling of that phrase might strangle him, and Peter appeared to be mildly confused. Loki took advantage of the odd silence.

"Mantis," he said, crossing one hand over his chest, and extending the other palm up, "it is an honor to meet one of your kind."

He could feel the others staring at him. Did they not know the proper way to greet Mantodeans? Offering a hand to a Mantodean was a sign of respect; that you were friendly, and did not wish to hide anything. Mantis hesitantly touched her fingertips to his, and Loki realized that she might not have known, either.

Whatever knowledge of her customs she may or may not have aside, she definitely had cultivated her empathic abilities to a high degree. Her probe of his mind was a gentle caress, and she had hardly maintained contact for more than a second before she took her hand back with a soft, 'oh'.

The other Guardians and Stark raised their weapons, but Mantis laughed, and they relaxed again.

"You must be very ugly, too, if you think I am beautiful," she giggled.

"If _you_ are ugly, then I am a hideous and loathsome beast," Loki said, a bit incredulous that she could think such a thing of herself. He noticed the one called Starlord face-palming behind her.

"Oh my god, is he flirting? I think I might be sick," Stark's voice interrupted. Loki sighed.

"Your brother," Mantis whispered, "he mourns you."

"He usually does," Loki smiled wryly. "Wait-Thor? When did you see him?"

"That guy was your brother?" Starlord exclaimed. "You guys look nothing alike."

"Yes," Drax said gravely. "He is a beautiful man." Loki could only raise his eyebrow at that.

"Do you know where he was going?"

"Oh, yeah, he took the other Guardians. Went to get a weapon, or something," Starlord said.

His brother was alive. This was good. Loki felt something relax inside that he hadn't realized was tense. He'd been confident that Thor would survive, but it was good to hear news of him.

Thor had probably gone to Nidavellir. The dwarves would make him a new hammer-they'd always liked Thor-and then he'd go to Midgard. Loki knew that Thor had helped to create the being that currently held the Mind Stone. If he'd calculated correctly, it was also the last Stone that Thanos needed.

"Loki?" A voice called from behind him. Loki whirled about, recognizing it immediately.

"Nebula," he said softly, the relief he felt unconsciously seeping into his voice. "You are well?"

The blue part-cyborg rolled her shoulder and twisted her knee back into place. She smiled a lopsided smile.

"Never better," she said solemnly. He met her eyes for a moment, reading the truth there, instead.

During his time with Thanos, he and Nebula had formed a sort of companionship. Those who had been tortured by the mad Titan were not, in general, capable of forming real friendships, but once he and Nebula had ascertained each other's similar goals, they had silently come to a mutual understanding. He saw what she did not wish to say; that she was nearly depleted, but the end was near, either way, and she would see it through.

"Excellent. Midgard it is, then," Loki said, clapping his hands, startling the others. "I presume you came on your own vessel?" He addressed the Guardians. "I am afraid it would be a little cramped if we were all on mine."

Perhaps his tone had sounded a bit too cheerful when it was the imminent destruction of half the universe on the line. All except Strange had varying expressions of astonishment directed at him.

"Thanos is on Earth?" Peter asked hesitantly.

"If he is not at the moment, he will be very soon," Loki told him honestly. The little Spider nodded slowly, and then, to Loki's (and everyone else's) surprise, determinedly marched over, stood next to him, and said, "What're we waiting for?"

Loki could not have stopped the smile that spread across his face.

* * *

Did I just… almost write Mantis/Loki? Huh. If anyone wants to take that and run with it, please do! I'm not going to chase that plot bunny, but I'd totally read that.

Btw, Mantis' origins are different in the comics and the movie; in the comics she's originally from Earth, and in the movie it's 'unknown planet'. I went with the movie's origin because it gave me lots of flexibility, and took her species name from the scientific name for a praying mantis. Side note: My sister and I are coining the term 'intergalactically correct'.


	7. You Now Can Land

A/N: Firstly, to Super secret bob: thanks for the compliment, I guess… I'm so happy you like my story! And I don't think Drax will get more time with Peter, but my characters all do what they want anyway.

My sister told me she thought it was funny that I talked about my characters like they were real people in my head. I had to confess that they really ARE-they get up in there and make me write things. I don't know if that's weird or not, but once I have a character semi-mapped out, they can literally hijack my brain. For example, if anyone's read my soulmates-au series 'Darcy and Everyone', the last installment was with Natasha, and she was the worst about it. I was jogging and suddenly I had Natasha-brain. For the entire rest of the run. And the rest of the day, because I didn't have an opportunity to scribble it down anywhere for hours. Then sometimes, my characters ditch me. I get a few stray sentences from them, and they're gone. Return date uncertain (but my brain is a fun place to play, I guess, cuz they usually come around eventually). Anyway, all that to say, Peter ran away from me last week, and it's okay now, I got him back (he's basically a mix of my two younger brothers and I know how to get them to do whatever I want muahahaha) but that's why this chapter was late. To make it up, Peter said he'd cooperate to make you all a really long chapter, so here you guys go!

* * *

They split up then, the Guardians and Nebula going back to their own ships. Peter could hear Drax muttering something about vengeance as he stalked off, following Mantis and Starlord.

Peter scrambled to follow Loki and Doctor Sorcerer Supreme Strange onto the Commodore, leaving Mr. Stark to hobble after him. It was rude, but he really wanted to avoid that lecture he knew was coming.

"Hi, Mister Strange, uh, Doctor, Sorcerer Supreme, sir. I'm Peter. Spiderman," he said, awkwardly holding out his hand.

"Just Dr. Strange is fine, Peter," the man said, his tone more amused than patronizing as he shook Peter's hand.

"Wow, okay, that's cool, uh, I wanted to ask-"

"Why you're not on Earth right now?" Mr. Stark interrupted, finally having made it onto the ship. He didn't look very happy, either.

"You gave me a new suit," Peter said defensively.

"So that you wouldn't die when you fell back to land from the stratosphere."

"I thought I could help!"

Loki and Strange were very pointedly ignoring the conversation from the pilot's chairs, pretending to be totally engrossed in getting the ship off the ground.

"And I thought I told you to go home," Mr. Stark insisted as he looked around the ship. He gave the giant bed a funny look, but he froze when he saw the bloodstained bench.

"Is that your blood? Did he hurt you?"

"Yes, but-no! Of course not!" Peter was quick to reassure him, but Mr. Stark didn't soften his gaze at all. He'd been hoping he could just gloss over the whole thing, but at this point it would be better to give in. Mr. Stark would drag it out of him one way or other.

"No… I tried to stick to the donut ship, and uh, I kinda got thrown off it into space, and then I woke up on a Pangorian ship, and Loki was there, and he helped me, and we got out and now we're here. The new suit is awesome though, Mr. Stark. The legs are really cool, I mean, thanks, yeah," Peter blurted, talking quickly, partly because he was nervous, and partly because maybe if he said it fast enough, Mr. Stark might just not notice all the dangerous bits. He didn't think it had worked though, because Mr. Stark stared at him with a very disbelieving expression.

"There's so many things you are in trouble for right now," Mr. Stark finally said, shaking his head. "And don't think I haven't missed that you didn't tell me how that happened," he jabbed a finger toward Peter's side, where the knife had sliced him. The new suit had some ability to self-repair, but it was obvious where it had done so; a smooth gray line bubbled outward, like a scar.

"Uh, well, there was a Pangorian with a space-gun, and another dude with a knife," Peter said slowly, looking anywhere but at Mr. Stark. Dr. Strange was studiously pretending he was deaf, and Loki was gently adjusting the controls as they sped out of Titan's atmosphere.

"Make up your mind, kid. Knife or space-gun?"

"Blaster," Peter heard Loki mutter, too quietly for anyone but him to hear. It made him feel a little better, though.

"Both," he admitted. "I couldn't dodge 'em both, so I just dodged the blaster, I was going to get hit either way-"

"The suit didn't hold up to a knife?" Mr. Stark squawked. "A suit _I_ made?"

"It was a space-knife?" Peter offered weakly in defense. He honestly didn't know why the knife had so easily sliced through the brand-new suit, but Mr. Stark was clearly taking it personally.

"C'mon, let me see, then. How bad is it?"

"It's fine, it's all healed," Peter whined, trying to knock Mr. Stark's hands away from his side.

"Did _he_ patch you up?" Mr. Stark gestured toward Loki.

"Well, I had no wish for him to bleed out on my ship," Loki replied smoothly.

"Excuse me?"

"I do not enjoy the company of corpses," Loki said slowly, turning to meet Mr. Stark's eyes, "and he fought well, for a child."

Mr. Stark was actually stunned into silence, and Peter looked at Loki in surprise. That was... a compliment? Well, the closest he'd probably ever get from the god of mischief. But…

"Hey, I'm not a child!" He protested. Loki just gave him his ubiquitous raised eyebrow. Dr. Strange turned away slightly, muffling a snort.

Mr. Stark sighed. "Right. We'll drop you off, no more fighting today. Your aunt can deal with this."

Peter felt several different things at Mr. Stark's words, most of them anger, but he squashed that down. It wouldn't help his case.

"She might not, though," he said quietly. "That's what we're fighting for, right? Thanos will destroy everyone we love. Aunt May might not…" Peter struggled for the right words. "Don't make me stay behind. I can- I need to help. I can't be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman if there's no neighborhood." He paused. "Okay, that didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

He was acutely aware that Loki and Dr. Strange were intently listening, despite their 'distraction', but he didn't care. He needed Mr. Stark to understand. He needed to fight. It was the entire universe at stake, not just Earth, and if he didn't fight, there might not be an Aunt May to go home to. And just for good measure, he put on the eyes he gave Aunt May whenever he wanted to have ice cream for dinner (it usually worked).

Mr. Stark seemed to flounder for a moment.

"Okay… Okay, fine. Let's just-it's the end of the universe, sure."

Peter smiled weakly in relief.

"Oi, what's the plan, Reindeer Games?"

"I assume you…," Loki waved his hand vaguely, " assembled?"

Mr. Stark actually looked embarrassed. Peter felt a sort of sinking feeling.

"You didn't-nobody else on Earth knows what's coming?" He asked in horror. Mr. Stark was pointedly not looking at him.

"Dr. Banner is there, is he not?"

"Yes, we left him in New York," Strange said mildly. Peter wondered if anything ever made him lose his cool.

"Bruce, yeah, he's-he'll have called an assemble," Mr. Stark said, still looking a bit rattled. "So. Plan. What is it? Or was that it? Get everybody on one planet? Final showdown?"

"That was part of it," Loki said cautiously, sliding a glance at Strange.

"It's, ah, it's better if you don't know, Tony," Dr. Strange said, although he was clearly apologetic as he said it. "It's the end game."

"One in fourteen million, huh?"

"… and six hundred and five," Dr. Strange said. They were having some kind of stare-down that looked really intense (it was also really weird how they both had impeccably trimmed facial hair, was there like a support group for that or something?) when the Commodore jolted as they dropped out of… Lightspeed? Hyperspace? Warp? The vortex?

Whatever it was, Peter swayed gently forward on his toes to compensate for the sudden change in speed. Mr. Stark wobbled next to him, and caught himself on the wall.

"Woah," Peter breathed, finally looking out the cockpit window. The Earth looked beautiful from space. He hadn't seen the view as he was leaving (being preoccupied with clinging to the outside of the donut spaceship) and it was amazing.

Except for the invading alien army.

Peter had been a little worried that they might not be able to find where on Earth Thanos had gone, but it was definitely not going to be a problem. At least a dozen giant ships were already there, zooming to the surface, somewhere in… Africa?

"Looks like we're late to the party," Mr. Stark quipped.

"Wakanda, that's good," Strange muttered.

"What's Wakanda?" Peter asked, since everyone seemed to know already.

"A secretly rich and technologically advanced country in Africa," Mr. Stark said shortly, and something about the way he said it made Peter pause. He knew that tone. It was Mr. Stark's _'I'm-impressed-but-also-jealous-why-didn't-I-think-of-it-first'_ voice. Peter had once had the honor of having it directed at himself before, when he'd suggested something totally awesome for the Ironman suit.

"You mean they've got tech that's better than yours," he accused.

Dr. Strange was polite enough not to laugh, but Loki made a noise that sounded like a snort, and Peter could see his shoulders shaking.

"You're just here to keep me humble, aren't you, kid?" Mr. Stark sighed, but he was smiling, and Peter knew he wasn't mad.

They were approaching the invading alien ships, but Peter couldn't see anyone friendly. He couldn't see a fight at all, actually, and it was really weird, because it looked like the aliens were throwing themselves against an invisible wall, and-oh. Duh. There was a _force field._ Wakanda was awesome.

He was about to ask Mr. Stark how exactly it worked, when suddenly, a city appeared. Dr. Strange straightened, and Mr. Stark swore. Very creatively.

"What? Did we go through or was that…," Peter trailed off, already knowing the answer, but not really wanting to hear it.

"The shield is down," Loki confirmed anyway.

"I think it was on purpose," Dr. Strange mused.

They could see the fight now, down below, the alien hordes clashing with the Wakandans. Peter hoped the force field dropping was on purpose, because the fight didn't look so great from up where they were. Dr. Banner had done his job, though, because Peter spotted some of the other Avengers fighting below. The aliens were really weird, too. They had lots of arms, and they looked sorta human-shaped, but they ran on all their arms and legs. Peter wasn't sure why he was surprised, though, after all the aliens he'd met in the last day or so.

"Vision!" Mr. Stark abruptly lunged over the console, pointing toward the city. The android was speeding out of a tall building, down towards the battle.

Peter had met Vision before, in Germany, but there hadn't really been much time to talk to the guy-or, wait, Vision was an android, did they have preferred pronouns? Mr. Stark hadn't introduced him to anyone before the fight at the airport, and nobody seemed to want to play an icebreaker get-to-know-you game in the middle of a fight.

The ship swerved; Loki directing them to somewhere they could land. They lost sight of the main battlefield for a moment as he did, and when Peter saw it again, he felt his jaw drop. Lightning crackled and thundered over the battlefield with no clouds in sight.

"Um, I think Thor's here," Peter said dumbly, still watching the lightning in awe.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Mr. Stark said, rolling his eyes at him.

"We're going to have to fight our way in," Loki said tersely, as the ship touched down in an open space some distance from where Vision had headed. Peter knew Thor was a touchy subject (mostly because Loki rarely said anything about him) but Loki had asked the Guardians about him, so he had to care a little bit.

Loki hit the button to open the side doors as he stood, and Peter's Spidey sense suddenly went catastrophically haywire. Peter reflexively grabbed onto whoever was nearest, not caring who, (probably Loki, based on the leather-clad arm) and gasped through the all-encompassing feeling of _danger!_ "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."

"Kid, no, let's not start with the pop-culture references."

"I'm trying to say that something's coming," Peter snapped. He didn't mean to, but the Spidey sense was the strongest he'd ever felt it; it was like the first time he'd ever had sensory overload. "Something very, very bad."

"Thanos," Loki said, grimly, and they all looked out to see an ominous cloud of blue and black emerge in the distance.

He was here.

* * *

Dun dun dun…

I'd also like to announce that there's going to be a sequel to this, thanks to a comment I got on Ao3! If anyone has suggestions for an adventure they'd like to see Loki and Peter have, please drop a comment! Love you guys!


	8. See You On Aldebaran

A/N: To ThatOneGuest: Part of one of my favorite shows when I was a kid was The Adventures of Cliff Hanger. So you can blame PBS for my edge-of-the-seat endings, haha. And you got me. I am a sucker for easy drama/fluff/mushy-feelings-that-hit-you-in-the-feels! Peter was referencing a (really old, lol) movie called Alien. I stole that line of his directly from A:IW.

And thanks so much to everyone that's reviewed, favorited and followed so far! I never expected to have (as of this posting) 125 favs and 185 follows! Whaaaaaaat?! You guys have all been so great!

* * *

Loki grasped Peter's arm before he could swing out of the ship. The little Spider looked up at him through his lenses questioningly.

"Don't fight Thanos," Loki said, knowing he sounded a little desperate, but it was important. "Don't-anyone but him. You will not win that fight." He couldn't tell where Peter's eyes were behind the mask, so he settled for glancing between the lenses. "I mean it, little Spider."

"Okay," Peter finally said, and Loki knew that Mantis wouldn't need to even touch him to feel the relief pouring from him. He let go of the little Spider's arm, and they charged into the fray.

There was no need to discuss where Thanos could possibly be going-they all knew it. They dove into the woody area Vision had been headed to, taking on the stray Outriders that got in their way, and fighting in the right general direction as best they could.

The Outriders were not particularly difficult to take down, merely annoying, and numerous. Next to him, Strange was using portals to chop them in half; Loki grimaced as blood sprayed on his pants. Strange glanced at him apologetically. Well, it was effective, at least.

Stark had taken to the air, hovering just above the tree line, and blasting with his repulsors, although he had to keep moving-the Outriders kept climbing the trees to try and knock him out of the air.

The little Spider ran past, using the legs on his suit to skitter from tree to tree, shouting, "Welcome to Earth!" as he shot Taser-webs into an Outrider's face. It went down twitching.

Finally, Loki burst out of the trees, and into a clearing, stopping short. Peter flipped from a web, landing next to him.

It was too late to help Vision. In front of them, the Mad Titan held the android up with the gauntlet, the Time Stone reversing whatever damage had been done. Around him, broken heroes struggled to stand, one last futile hope that they could stop the end of the universe by their sacrifice.

Loki had never fancied himself a martyr, and he wasn't about to start now.

Thanos ripped the restored gem from Vision's head, and a blinding flash of light flooded the clearing. Peter tugged on his arm a moment before it happened, sparing his eyes from the onslaught of light, and they heard Thanos roar as the gauntlet was completed.

"Get away from this fight," Loki told the little Spider. He wrenched his mask off, his wide brown eyes imploring.

"You'll… you'll be alright?"

"Yes," Loki said. He didn't know if it was the truth or a lie, and that was more than a little unsettling. But the little Spider trusted him, and made for the tree-line, for relative safety, and that was all that mattered.

He turned back in time to see Thor hit Thanos with an axe, lightning crackling all around.

"I told you, you die for that," he heard Thor growl, and it was so, well, Thor, that Loki nearly laughed, and allowed himself a moment of hope. Could this be it? Would his plans go unneeded? Because no matter how confident Strange was in how this had to go, Loki could not help but feel inadequate.

Then Thanos looked up, and said, "You should have aimed for the head."

And he snapped his fingers.

Loki almost thought it would do nothing, for a moment. Then a shockwave of light pulsed outwards, across the clearing, the battlefield, Midgard, and then entire universe trembled. Thor, still gripping his axe, was thrown off Thanos violently.

There was stillness, and then screams, all around.

"What have you done?" He heard Thor ask Thanos, and surely, surely Thor was not that dense? From behind him, suddenly, he heard the little Spider.

"I don't feel so good… I don't know what's happening. Please, I don't wanna go…I don't wanna go… I'm sorry."

Loki had to force himself not to turn, but he knew the moment Peter became a pile of ash in Stark's arms anyway. It filled his veins with ice-cold rage, and he narrowed red eyes on Thanos.

What had he told his brother, before, on Svartalfheim?

" _Trust my rage."_

That was nothing to what he felt now. The hesitation and doubt in himself that he'd indulged in not a minute earlier sizzled away like the sunlight on his rapidly cooling skin, his Jotun form bleeding through.

He strode forward. Thanos was distracted, staring down at the gauntlet.

"Brother?" Thor croaked from the ground, eyes fixed in disbelief.

"Always the tone of surprise," Loki said, dryly. "Did I not say the sun would rise on us again?"

Thor's laugh sounded as if it was strangled out of him, and his mouth moved as if it wanted to speak, but nothing came. His eyes filled instead with tears, and perhaps, another time, Loki would have been moved by the display of emotion, but he cared little at the moment for Thor's feelings. Except for what a horribly ugly crier Thor was; he stored that little tidbit away to delight over later.

"Trickster," Thanos rumbled.

"You miscalculated," Loki said casually.

"Yes," Thanos agreed. "It seems I did not squeeze your neck hard enough the first time."

"Oh, no, you did. It hurt much more than I anticipated." Thanos caught his implication, and eyed him speculatively. "Did I mention I am the god of mischief and lies?"

"Cease your riddles, Loki," Thanos demanded, involuntarily glancing at the gauntlet again.

"How do the Stones look?" Loki asked slyly. He did not need to see the gauntlet to know what it looked like-blackened, hollowed out, empty settings where four Stones once sat.

"Whatever you think you did, it did not succeed. I have done what I set out to do."

"Yes, indeed," Loki said, his inflection pleasant, at first. "Unfortunately, I don't agree with it."

"What are you doing, brother?" Thor asked, stumbling to his feet. Loki ignored him.

"You can do nothing," Thanos laughed. "I have the Stones."

"Oh, do you?" Loki smiled darkly, twisting his seidr-wrapped hands, and above them, three glowing stones appeared: red, blue, and yellow.

"Loki…" he heard Thor say.

"How?" Thanos said angrily.

"Well, that would ruin all the fun, wouldn't it?" Loki was moving as he spoke, and a score of clones of himself had appeared by the time he finished speaking, every one perfectly mirroring his expression, and brandishing the same twin daggers. Loki hid the Stones from view again, and he was indistinguishable from his copies.

"Incredible," all of them echoed together, "what one can do with the Stones."

He moved, all the clones at once, toward Thanos, daggers glinting. The Mad Titan roared, lashing out with the Power Stone, and knocking all the clones down at once. It did not buy him much time, however, because they quickly got themselves back up again.

Loki saw the Soul Stone glowing brighter on the gauntlet, and knew what he was looking for-which was the 'real' Loki. He and all his clones laughed maniacally. He'd used the Reality and Mind Stones to make them, and Thanos would find that every single one appeared to be himself.

He managed to strike the Titan while he was distracted with the Soul Stone, but Thanos soon realized it was a useless effort, and began destroying the clones with blasts from the Power Stone.

The fight became faster and faster, Loki creating more of himself, darting in to strike before Thanos crushed them. His multitude of selves moved together like a dance; even the purple light that took them down was part of it.

He used to Space Stone to move his real self out of harm's way, reappearing on the opposite edge of the clearing.

"Strange!" He called, hoping the sorcerer had not been caught in the snap. Loki knew this back and forth fight could not go on-Thanos had the Power Stone, and would outlast him with it. A golden circle, followed by a rustling of red quickly answered him.

"Do it now," Loki said, gritting his teeth.

Strange nodded and lifted a palm, revealing the glowing Time Stone. Green rune circles formed around his arm, and with a skillful movement, the same surrounded the Titan, his roar of disbelief quickly cut off as he was trapped in a moment.

Loki allowed his clones to dissipate, and strode purposefully forward.

"Loki," Strange called out, strain evident in his voice, "I won't be able to hold this for long."

He felt a brief flicker of disappointment that he couldn't stretch this out, make the Titan suffer for the pain he had inflicted. Instead, he stood in front of Thanos, and, looking in his frozen eyes, raised his daggers to the purple neck, and allowed himself to say one last thing.

"This is a mercy."

His blades slid together.

Strange released the Time Stone, and the purple head slowly slid off, landing with a thunk. The body, too, fell back, with the weight of heavy finality.

Loki did not give himself the time to think, and, moving to Thanos' side, he tugged on the gauntlet. It came free quite easily. He could not help but stare at it in his hands, and the blackened gold and scorched settings around the two glowing Stones captivated him. His vision swam for a moment.

It would be too easy…

He felt someone come up beside him, and the touch of madness left.

"Strange?" Loki offered, holding out the gauntlet to him.

"No, no," the sorcerer laughed. "You don't want to see how things would turn out if I used it. It must be you. Besides, you know the rules."

Loki hesitated, but nodded.

"Rules, brother?" Thor asked, looking at Thanos' corpse from the corner of his eye. Loki had forgot he was there. He sighed.

"Most items imbued with seidr have some level of awareness," He began to explain, as he carefully slid his hand into the oversized gauntlet. "They choose their owners; their allegiance must be won in some way."

"Ah, like Stormbreaker. And Mjolnir," Thor said in comprehension. Of all the crude and uncreative things he'd ever heard, of course that's what Thor had chosen to name his axe.

The remaining gems glowed a little brighter, and the other three he had zipped into place. The gauntlet began to shrink, stopping when his hand fit snugly.

"It likes you," Thor said in awe, and, Loki begrudgingly admitted to himself, pride for his little brother. It was kinda nice.

"Yes, it would seem so," Loki said softly, turning his hand around to look at it.

"Here," Strange called, and the Time Stone floated over to the gauntlet, sliding into its place. "It might not be strictly necessary," the doctor continued, "but I think it will work better if you have them all."

Loki gasped, suddenly feeling the power of all the Stones, all at once. By the Nornir, he would have to draw on every reserve of control he had, to keep them in line. The Stones clamored to be used, and he knew this could go very badly if he failed to restrain himself and them.

"Alright," he said to the Stones, closing his eyes, "let's fix the universe."

The Stones' power rushed through him, overwhelming all his defenses, sweeping him away with them, and in the end, he was left with one thought.

 _Come back, little Spider._

* * *

Cliiiiiiff Hanger, hanging on a cliff! And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!

Guys. There's only two more chapters. Wut. I can't believe it's almost over… Except it's nooooot! Because, don't forget, I'm writing a seeeeequeeeellll! What I've planned right now is a bit like Doctor Who, but, you know, Loki'd. (Loki'd, haha, does anyone remember that?) So, if you have an adventure suggestion for Peter and Loki, leave it in a review! Or drop me a pm! _  
_


	9. Safe On The Green Desert Sand

A/N: Just this once, my friends, everybody lives! Your excessively timely update this week is brought to you by the wonderful invention that was Labor Day weekend, and my awesome sister who reads this stuff I scribble and tells me if things are 'glaringly bothersome'. Lol, I love her though, for real :)

To ThatOneGuest: That's actually a brilliant idea. Totally using that. I'm thinking Loki shows up at Peter's house utterly bored to death. Tricksy shenanigans will ensue…

* * *

He remembered telling Mr. Stark that he didn't feel good.

His Spidey sense had been screaming again-not that it had abated since the moment Thanos appeared-and he'd known that something was coming to take him away.

Usually, his Spidey sense came with a direction.

 _The danger's over there, duck that way._

This time had been different. He couldn't duck, dodge, hide, or throw a web at the danger. It had been everywhere. Nowhere had been safe.

* * *

Peter floated. At least, he felt like he was floating, except he didn't think he had a body anymore. It probably should have freaked him out, but it didn't.

Everything was a sort of nice, glowy, orangey color.

How was he seeing things, anyway? Did he have eyes?

There were lots of paler orange bubbles floating with him, gently moving nowhere. They seemed nice.

He was pretty sure he was a bubble, too.

* * *

Peter remembered the Stone that Loki had mentioned, the one called the Soul Stone, and he realized just how many bubbles were floating with him.

He wished he couldn't see.

* * *

Peter wondered who else was in here with him. He'd seen a few people disappear before he had, so they were probably in here, too.

They could be any of the other bubbles, though, and there were a lot of bubbles.

Maybe that bubble was a celebrity. And that one could be a world leader. Or a Nobel prize winner. Maybe one was Neil deGrasse Tyson. That would be cool; Peter had always wanted to meet him. Or not cool, actually. Peter didn't really want him to be trapped in here.

He wondered if everyone else, in their little bubbles, was as aware of their predicament. What if someone had been asleep when the Soul Stone snatched them? Were they still asleep? When they got out of here, would they still be asleep and wake up later like nothing had happened?

Peter wondered if he could fall asleep in here.

* * *

He couldn't fall asleep.

* * *

Glowy bubbles weren't a bad look, but they were low on mobility. He was jittery. How that was possible, when he didn't have a body, he couldn't explain.

He'd run through his academic decathlon flashcards, Spanish vocab, the Periodic Table, Chemistry and Physics formulas and equations, and planned his English essay on Gatsby that was due next week. Literally everything he could remember, he went over and over. Five times, ten times, a hundred, a thousand times.

MJ would be so proud.

* * *

The orangey-ness was all very peaceful.

It was like those sensory-deprivation tanks. He couldn't speak, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. Peter had thought those would be fun to try sometime. Give his super-senses a break for once. All would be calm, serene.

It could have been five minutes. Or five hours. Days. Years. Decades. Centuries.

He wanted to scream.

* * *

Peter kept thinking he was going to get out of this. He knew it was wildly optimistic. Thanos had all the Stones, and, despite Loki's confidence, he didn't see how they could win. But he still caught himself thinking about things he'd do once he got out.

Find out if Neil deGrasse Tyson got sucked into the Stone, too.

Start a support group for people who'd been in the Stone.

They'd probably need it.

* * *

Peter missed Aunt May. And Ned, and MJ. It was great and all, having a space adventure and fighting to save the world, but right now he'd give up being Spiderman to hear Aunt May's voice.

Even if it was her yelling that he was grounded.

He wished he could cry, but there were only silent bubbles.

* * *

There was a change, eventually. It felt like a ripple. All the bubbles swayed.

The orangey-ness began to change. It got darker, slowly. It was like a wave, rolling in.

A green wave.

The bubbles started disappearing. All of them, as the green crept closer, were just… gone.

Peter was terrified of it, but the green reminded him of Loki's seidr, a bit.

Suddenly, it was only green, no more orange at all, and it was nice. He could almost _feel_ again-and then there was a voice.

The tone wrapped around him softly.

"Come back, little Spider," it said.

Peter couldn't speak, but he didn't need to. The green swept him up.

* * *

It was a weird feeling, being whooshed out of the Soul Stone. Sorta like swinging from skyscrapers on his webs. Terrifying and thrilling, and most of all, joyful.

And then Peter was back in his body. Right there on the ground where he'd left from. Mr. Stark, standing over him, was crying. That was concerning, but the light, the noise, even the smells, they were suddenly all far too much. His body still ached from the battle, too.

Peter curled up, as tight as he could, arms wrapped around his eyes and ears. He wanted to ask Karen to turn on the 'Sensory Overload' settings, but even the thought of whispering had him cringing. He tried to shut everything out.

He heard Mr. Stark calling his name, but then everything became muted. Mr. Stark must have had Friday tell Karen to dim everything.

Eventually, Peter felt himself relaxing.

"Karen?" he whispered.

"Yes, Peter?" Karen asked, at a volume so low that Peter knew he wouldn't have heard it without his super-hearing.

"You can turn everything back up," he said, slightly louder. "Just, uh, go slow."

"Of course, Peter."

Peter carefully peeled his arms off of his own head, and slowly opened one eyelid. Mr. Stark was still there. His eyes looked a little red, but he wasn't crying, anymore. He cracked a smile.

"How ya feel, kid?"

"I'm better, now," Peter croaked as he tried to speak at a normal level. "What happened? How long's it been?"

"Thirteen and a half minutes," Mr. Stark said, and then, with a note of worry, "Why, how long did you think it'd been?"

"Dunno," mumbled Peter, slowly wiggling his fingers and toes, just to feel them. "Just… longer than minutes." Mr. Stark sighed.

"Alright, kid. Lay it on me. How bad was it? In the Stone?"

"It was… orange," Peter managed, struggling to describe it, and also really not wanting to talk about it.

"Orange."

"Yup."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much," Peter mused. "Orange, and more orange, and then-Loki!"

He tried to stand, and half succeeded, toppling over and catching himself on Mr. Stark's armor.

"Woah, woah," Mr. Stark said, propping him back up, "What do you need him for? He's fine, killed a Titan, saved a universe, whatever. See, he's over there, not even a scratch."

Peter looked. Sure enough, Loki was there.

He did look a little disheveled, but that was probably because Thor had almost completely enveloped him in his arms. Loki didn't even look like he was struggling all that much to get free, despite his disgruntled expression.

"Loki!" Peter called, stepping away from Mr. Stark and approaching the brotherly reunion.

Loki proved that he'd been enjoying the hug more than his face suggested by getting out of it in under a second.

"Little Spider," said Loki, warmly, and then he _hugged_ Peter.

It was nice. He was a surprisingly good hugger. Plus, Peter had a great view of Thor's gobsmacked expression (and everyone else's who'd migrated over to see who defeated Thanos) at Loki's uncharacteristic display of affection.

"I heard you, in there," Peter mumbled into Loki's chest.

"You heard me?" Loki asked, pulling back to look down at him.

"Yeah. It was all orangey-ness, and then there was green, and you, uh, told me to come back, and then I was here again. How'd you do it?"

"Yeah, I'd kinda like to hear that, too!" Mr. Stark called from behind him.

Surprise and relief were funny expressions to see on Loki, because he was always so guarded, but those soon melted into a smile, and then a laugh, and he was gripping Peter's shoulders to keep from falling over, he was laughing so hard. It was strange, but Peter didn't mind, even though the gauntlet on Loki's right hand was poking into him uncomfortably.

And what the heck, how did he get that? Thanos had seemed, well, unstoppable, but clearly he wasn't, because there was a big purple corpse over by Dr. Strange, and the gauntlet was chilling on Loki's hand.

"Hey, still waiting, here," Mr. Stark said irritably.

Peter looked around, and realized they'd gathered quite an audience: all the Avengers, Panther dude, some lady with a spear that looked super badass, the Guardians, a green lady, the blue chick with the space name he couldn't remember, and… a raccoon… in a tree… playing an old Nintendo? What even was his life, anymore?

Loki finally caught his breath, almost wiping at his eyes with the wrong hand, but he didn't look inclined to answer any questions.

"I can explain," Dr. Strange sighed, stepping forward. "We created receptacles that could hold the energy and mimic the properties of the Stones in our possession."

Everyone blinked at the sorcerer. Peter had understood that, but really he could've just said-

"Fakes. You made fake Infinity Stones," Mr. Stark said, sounding very doubtful.

"I am particularly skilled at such things," Loki said, somehow managing to sound like he had been insulted and like he didn't care at all at the same time.

"Especially snakes," Peter heard Thor mutter.

"And they were relatively powerless," Loki finished.

"Powerless?" Scarlet Witch cried, clutching Vision's hand tightly. "They wiped out half the universe!"

"And I brought it back," Loki raised an eyebrow, and glanced at Vision pointedly. "You're welcome."

"I think what we'd really all like to know is," someone chimed in, and Peter had to do a double take, because when had Captain America gotten a beard? "Why wait? You could've destroyed them, instead of making fake ones. Why let him get this far?"

"He would have won with the ones he did manage to get-and we would not have had any defense," Dr. Strange said, sharply.

"There was one Stone which neither of us could justify sacrificing what it asked for to obtain," Loki added heavily, and Peter saw Starlord pull the green lady closer into his side. "Besides, warfare is all about deception, and Thanos was never good at it. He exposed himself when he thought he'd won."

"So you could cut off all the heads at once," a new voice said softly, and Peter was startled to see it was the Winter Soldier, who had a good-humored glint in his eye as he nodded toward the purple head on the ground.

"Ha!" laughed the raccoon in the tree next to him. Peter wasn't even surprised. "That was funny, pal. Good one! Cut off all the heads, ha!"

The Winter Soldier rolled his eyes, but the raccoon's loud amusement had broken the weird tension between everyone, and the focus shifted away from Loki.

Peter cleared his throat hesitantly. "So, uh, where will you go now?"

Loki didn't respond right away, his brows furrowing as he looked around.

"Cuz you could, um, you could come to my house, you know, if you want. I'll tell Aunt May you saved the universe and stuff, she won't mind at all."

"Thank you, Peter," Loki said quietly, his eyes following Thor through the crowd of heroes. "But I think, perhaps, I will go home first."

"Okay," Peter said, and he was happy that Loki was giving his brother another shot. "But you gotta promise you'll visit, because Aunt May will definitely bake a walnut loaf for you, and you'd like it, they're really, really good."

Loki smiles, a real smile.

"I wouldn't miss it for all the Nine Realms."

* * *

*sniffs* Only the epilogue left for this one, dear readers!


	10. Two Thousand

A/N: Sorry this is late! My sister's computer died so I had to recruit my lil bro to beta this, and he took a while to get back to me, cuz he's in school, too. But here we are, at last, the final chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope you all have just as much fun reading it!

To ThatOneGuest: Oh no! You've discovered my benevolent plan! Muahahahaha! Read on and enjoy ;)

To Time-machine pug: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! That's a pretty good idea… I'll see what I can do!

* * *

Peter slumped, exhausted, in the plush chair, and sighed gratefully. Panther dude had turned out to be T'Challa, the _king_ of Wakanda, and had invited them all back to his palace for 'refreshments', which apparently meant a feast big enough to feed the Hulk for a week. Although, there were quite a few starving superheroes in the room, so it probably would all be eaten.

Peter had scarfed down half the food on his huge plate before slowing down and actually tasting it. Whatever it was, it was delicious. He hadn't recognized any of the dishes, so he'd just taken a little of everything that smelled good, and all of it smelled good.

Wakanda had the best food on the planet, he decided.

The rest of the universe's defenders, for the most part, were also seated in the comfy chairs around the long table. The blue lady wasn't sitting; she stood against the wall, eating her food quickly and looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. The tree was sitting, but he didn't have any food, and he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the old Nintendo he was playing. Peter wondered if he ate food at all. Maybe he just soaked up sunlight?

He was in between Colonel Rhodes and Mr. Stark, who'd pulled him away from Loki on their way over to the palace. He knew Mr. Stark was just trying to protect him, so he didn't say anything.

Aunt May had called him via Karen, and he'd cried a little, tears soaking into his mask, because he was so happy to hear her voice, and he'd told her the whole story, and then she'd cried, and promised to bake Loki all the walnut loaves he wanted. He talked to her the whole way back to the palace, and then she'd finally made him hang up when he moaned as he smelled the glorious feast waiting for them, and he admitted he hadn't eaten anything since before the battle.

Nobody seemed to be up to much talking. Everybody looked as tired as Peter felt. He was still eating; even though his stomach felt full, his body was demanding more. He brought another forkful of whatever heavenly thing Wakanda had invented to his mouth lethargically.

He chewed and swallowed slowly, and unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn behind his half-rolled up mask. The chair was so comfy, he could probably just drift right off…

"There is one matter we have not discussed," T'Challa announced from the head of the table, dragging Peter from his food coma. "What will be done with the Stones?"

The whole table looked at Loki, seated next to Thor at the other end, casually inspecting the gauntlet's fingernails.

"I don't mind if we destroy them all," Starlord said, raising his hand like he was in a classroom. A floodgate of comments was opened, everyone giving their different opinions: keep that one, or those two, split them up, destroy this one or that one. They all talked over one another, and it started to give Peter a headache.

Loki cleared his throat, and it was like a gunshot.

"If I may," he said smoothly, "since I am the one wearing the gauntlet, I'll decide."

Hawkeye scoffed. "Yeah right. We can't trust you."

Peter felt a righteous burn of anger, but Loki had everything well in hand.

"I could have just left with the Stones without fixing the universe," he drawled. "Or I could have enslaved all of you. I could even leave right now, with all the Stones, and none of you could stop me."

Thor shifted, and Loki sighed.

"Oh, very well, brother, perhaps you could, but you wouldn't."

The smile that burst across Thor's face wasn't really fitting to the situation, but Peter was pretty sure all Thor had heard was Loki calling him his brother.

"Excellent," Loki continued, plucking the Time Stone from the gauntlet easily. "Strange," he said, flicking it over to the sorcerer, who performed a complicated, wavy hand motion in front of his necklace. It whirled open, little metal layers folding aside, and the Stone settled gently in between them.

"Woah, so cool," Peter couldn't help whispering.

"And these, I think, have done enough damage," Loki floated the Mind and Soul Stones to hover over the middle of the table. He glanced at the Scarlet Witch and inclined his head. Her answering smile was savage. She raised her hands, and the Stones lit up with her red magic, glowing brighter as she poured more into them.

After a moment, Loki's green seidr joined it, the red and green flitting around each other. The light suddenly got really intense, and Peter had to squint to see the Stones. Just before they exploded, Dr. Strange flicked a glowing net of weird squiggly symbols around them, and the yellow and orange energy from the Stones billowed against it harmlessly. The broken, dead shards of the Stones fell to the table.

It felt like the room let out a collective breath, Peter included. He was happy that the Soul Stone, in particular, was gone. Seeing it destroyed had cleared away the last paranoid thoughts that maybe he was really still in there, and this was all an elaborate illusion he was hallucinating.

"And the others?" T'Challa asked, sitting forward, and folding his hands on the table.

Loki just gave him a quick smile.

"I have need of them," he said, slouching back in his chair.

"Look, Reindeer Games," said Mr. Stark, finally speaking up. "We can't just let you leave with three Stones."

Peter watched silently, waiting for Loki's move. He could have told them there was no use trying to get Loki to cooperate with anything he hadn't planned himself (even though it was literally all of his favorite superheroes sitting at one table), and besides, Loki looked like he had a plan.

"You can't?" Loki smirked, and then he vanished.

Several people shouted in outrage, and Thor waved his hand through the previously occupied space fruitlessly. In the general uproar, nobody was paying attention to Peter's quiet laughter, or the faint whisper heard only by him.

"See you around, little Spider."

* * *

 _3 months later_

Peter was in his room with Ned and MJ when he felt it. The building was vibrating. It was subtle, and his friends didn't notice, but he frowned, with a glance out his open window, and wondered if he should go check it out. He was wearing his suit under his clothes already...

Before he could decide, it got stronger.

"Do you feel that?" MJ asked.

"Yeah," Ned shot a nervous glance at him. Peter looked back, just as nervous, because he didn't know what to do. MJ didn't know-

"Aren't you going to go check it out, Spiderman?"

Peter and Ned stared at her, mouths agape.

"What? I'm observant," she shrugged. "And neither of you are very subtle."

Peter thought he should probably be offended, but he was actually more impressed.

"Oh man," Ned was saying enthusiastically, "we need to have a name now. We're a team, we should have a name, like Team Spidey! No, no-Spidey Squad!"

"I refuse to be a part of anything with 'squad' in its title," MJ said dryly. Peter clapped Ned on the back.

"Keep working on it, Ned."

He abruptly realized the shaking had stopped. MJ was looking at him expectantly.

"I don't know, my Spidey sense isn't- ," he cut himself off as his super-hearing heard something from the roof.

"Who're we picking up?" It was a woman.

"A friend," said a smooth, very familiar voice.

Peter turned to his friends with a grin.

"Wanna meet the god of mischief?"

Ned and MJ took literally zero convincing to go on the roof with him. They very willingly followed him out his window and up the fire escape. He pretty much sprinted up the steps himself in his eagerness, and, sure enough, there was the Commodore, parked on his roof.

"Loki!" Peter cried, spotting him standing with two people that he didn't recognize. One girl was engrossed in scribbling something on a notepad, and the other was wearing a distinctive red beanie.

"Little Spider," Loki smiled, and beanie-girl gasped.

"No way," she said excitedly. "Your friend is Spiderman? Awesome!"

"Hi," said Peter, deciding that if they were with Loki they could probably be trusted. "I'm Peter. Sometimes I crawl on ceilings and swing from skyscrapers."

He heard Ned and MJ clambering up from the fire escape behind him.

"And these are your friends? Your… web support?" Beanie-girl asked with a wink.

"Huh," said MJ, coming up beside him. "Actually, that's not bad."

" _Web Support_ ," Ned gasped. He was still trying to catch his breath from the climb, but it was very clear he liked the name.

"Hi, I'm Darcy," said beanie-girl with a cheerful wave. "And this is Jane-," she nudged the lady next to her, "-say hi Jane."

"Huh? Oh, hello," Jane said, and promptly went back to scribbling. Something about her was nagging at Peter's brain, but he couldn't think what.

Loki was frowning at his friends, and Peter hoped it hadn't been a bad idea to bring them up here.

"Hi, I'm Ned," said Ned, grinning like it was the best day of his life.

"MJ," said MJ, and then she glanced at Loki. "And you are?"

"Loki, Prince of Asgard and Jotunheim, god of mischief and lies," Loki said, sounding almost bored, but with something else in his tone, like he was throwing down an ultimatum.

MJ met Loki's challenging gaze with her own impassive stare. Peter had no clue what MJ was playing at, but the suspense was seriously going to kill him. It was like in the new Star Wars movie when Rey and Kylo battled with just the Force. Peter expected the invisible line between their eyes to spontaneously combust at any moment.

Even Jane had sensed the tension, forcing her attention from her scribbles.

Loki finally broke it off, sliding his eyes over to meet Peter's.

"Your friends can come, too," he announced.

"Uh, sorry, Loki, sir," Ned said, awkwardly. "Where are we going?"

Jane's head whipped up, and she looked at them incredulously.

"New Asgard, of course!"

* * *

If it wasn't obvious, there's gonna be a sequel! It's called 'The Intergalactic Adventures of Spiderman (and an Increasingly Irritated God of Mischief)'. So far you guys have suggested a lot of awesome ideas for adventures Loki and Peter will be going on-thank you all so much! The first chapter is already posted, so you can go to my profile and follow it!

Again, thank you all soooooo much for reading! :)


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